This book examines how the computer, as we currently know it, will be replaced by a new generation of technologies, moving computing off the desktop and ultimately integrating it with real world objects and everyday environments. It provides a unique combination of concepts, methods and prototypes of ubiquitous and pervasive computing reflecting the current interest in smart environments and ambient intelligence.

The Internet-of-Things changes the manner humans encounter and interact with computers. The latter, taking the form of so-called smart objects, “disappear” into the environment. They are everywhere but they are not immediately noticeable. Smart objects are often equipped with transacting capabilities, enabling the provision of goods and services by means of or through them. Consequently, many interactions with smart objects can be regarded as transactions, which are subject to laws and regulations in the areas of consumer and privacy protection. Such laws and regulations implicitly assume, however, that the parties interact face-to-face, use written communications or, more recently, communicate “through” the graphical user interfaces of websites. What happens if consent and disclosure requirements, both of which are tenets of consumer and privacy protection, must be fulfilled in a world devoid of direct human contact and traditional computer interfaces? The changed manner we transact through (or with?) computers tests the ability of existing legal principles to adapt to new commercial practices. To date, legal scholarship has addressed the challenges surrounding the purchase of smart objects. It has, however, barely recognized the problems accompanying transactions made through smart objects. In the former instance the object is the subject matter of the transaction, in the latter - it constitutes the transacting interface. Legal scholarship must acknowledge yet another challenge inherent in computer-mediated transactions: the interface. Smart objects may not be equipped with screens, keyboards and mice. If, however, there is no screen, how does one provide the legally prescribed information? If there is no traditional input device - how does one obtain consent?

At the time of the introduction of the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) concept many scenarios where considered to be visionary or even science fiction. Enabled by current technology, many aspects of these scenarios are slowly but inexorably becoming true. However, we are still facing important challenges that need further investments in research and industrialization. Current software engineering techniques and tools are not prepared to deal with the development of applications for what we could call AmI ecosystems, lacking a fixed architecture, controlled limits and even owners. The comfortable boundaries of static architectures and well-defined limits and owners are not existent in these AmI ecosystems. In its second year AmI.d again shows the heterogeneity of research challenges related to Ambient Intelligence. Many disciplines are involved and have to co-ordinate their efforts in resolving the strongly related research issues.

New perspectives on digital scholarship that speak to today's computational realities Scholars across the humanities, social sciences, and information sciences are grappling with how best to study virtual environments, use computational tools in their research, and engage audiences with their results. Classic work in science and technology studies (STS) has played a central role in how these fields analyze digital technologies, but many of its key examples do not speak to today’s computational realities. This groundbreaking collection brings together a world-class group of contributors to refresh the canon for contemporary digital scholarship. In twenty-five pioneering and incisive essays, this unique digital field guide offers innovative new approaches to digital scholarship, the design of digital tools and objects, and the deployment of critically grounded technologies for analysis and discovery. Contributors cover a broad range of topics, including software development, hackathons, digitized objects, diversity in the tech sector, and distributed scientific collaborations. They discuss methodological considerations of social networks and data analysis, design projects that can translate STS concepts into durable scientific work, and much more. Featuring a concise introduction by Janet Vertesi and David Ribes and accompanied by an interactive microsite, this book provides new perspectives on digital scholarship that will shape the agenda for tomorrow’s generation of STS researchers and practitioners.

Two-time Edgar Award-winning author Lori Roy spins a twisted, atmospheric tale about a small Southern town where girls disappear and boys run away. When Lane Fielding fled her isolated Florida hometown after high school for the anonymity of New York City, she swore she'd never return. But twenty years later, newly divorced and with two daughters in tow, she finds herself tending bar at the local dive and living with her parents on the historic Fielding Plantation. Here, the past haunts her and the sinister crimes of her father--the former director of an infamous boys' school--make her as unwelcome in town as she was the day she left. Ostracized by the people she was taught to trust, Lane's unsteady truce with the town is rattled when her older daughter suddenly vanishes. Ten days earlier, a college student went missing, and the two disappearances at first ignite fears that a serial killer who once preyed upon the town has returned. But when Lane's younger daughter admits to having made a new and unseemly friend, a desperate Lane attacks her hometown's façade to discover whether her daughter's disappearance is payback for her father's crimes--or for her own. With reporters descending upon the town, police combing through the swamp, and events taking increasingly disturbing turns, Lane fears she faces too many enemies and too little time to bring her daughter safely home. Powerful and heart-pounding, The Disappearing questions the endurance of family bonds, the dangers of dark rumors and small-town gossip, and how sometimes home is the scariest place of all.